Math teacher Liang Xuehui working in a rural primary school in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region — image credit: Apple
Apple and Tim Cook have announced a new donation to a fund in rural China that’s intended to expand education and environmental projects.
Apple’s donation is to the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF), which also organizes a climate conference. In 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the conference on how Apple recycling was already dependent on AI.
The new donation is specifically to help the CDRF expand its “Zhihui Gardener” project and have it benefit more teachers and students in China’s rural communities. The project was launched in 2022 with a donation from Apple of 50 million yuan ($6.9 million).
“We firmly believe that education is a powerful force to create opportunities,” said Cook in a statement about the new donations on Apple’s Chinese website (in translation). “Through long-term cooperation with the China Development Research Foundation, we are committed to providing new learning opportunities for rural communities in China.”
“We are very happy to continue to work hard on the basis of bilateral cooperation, to provide teaching tools and training for more teachers,” he continued, “and tap into students’ potential to acquire key skills to adapt to today’s and future work.”
Curiously, Apple’s announcement of a new donation does not specify how much it is. Instead, as well as the 2022 “Zhihui Gardener” donation, the company says only that its total commitment since 2020 is 350 million yuan ($48.3 million).
“We sincerely thank Apple for its support over the years.” Fang Jin, Secretary-General of the China Development Research Foundation, said. “Digital technology is playing a role in revolution in education, and has brought about practical changes to teaching and learning in the classroom.”
Apple says that over the next two years, the Zhihui Gardener project expand to 30 counties in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province, benefiting 120,000 teachers. Other projects reportedly benefit hundreds of thousands of students and teachers.
Separately, China’s vice premiere He Lifeng this week spoke with global business leaders including Tim Cook. According to Reuters, the meetings were to encourage more investment in what was claimed to be the “highly resilient” and “full of vitality” Chinese economy.
It’s not the first time that the vice premiere has met with Apple executives. In 2024, Apple COO Jeff Williams went on what was described as a secret visit by a US business delegation, which was urged to “participate aggressively in China’s further reform and modernization process.”
